One of the longest-running superhero sagas currently running is the X-Men saga. Seriously. The movies related to the fan favourite Marvel sub-species has been going on for 23 years now. It hasn’t ended yet because we are still waiting for that Deadpool movie which is gonna mix the merc with a mouth and the MCU together. Whether that will mean that the Fox X-Men will be in the MCU or not (hopefully it won’t be the case) still remains to be seen. There have been many ups and downs, as with any journey out there – even the MCU (check out how the Inhumans show was first set in the MCU then after it bombed, was declared non-canon). The Last Stand was the first of many missteps that the X-Men movies took with the saga, and one of the main criticism is the inaccuracy to the source material. Adapting a comic into a movie is hard enough due to choosing what to cut out to make into a movie. The harder part still is maintaining continuity with the previous movies while adapting a story that doesn’t rely on the movies’ continuity. What’s even harder than that is choosing what can work and what can’t work in the movie, that the comic has, and weighing the fan reaction to the omission of such. The Last Stand went through a lot of that. This article will explore the differences between it and the comic it was based on.
1. The Cure Storyline
Any well-versed comic fan knows that the Phoenix saga is the most important X-Men storyline in history. Some may put up a debate with other strong stories, but none have had as big an impact on the X-Men as this saga…not even the “Schism”. It was a story that broke the X-Men down physically and emotionally. The story of the Phoenix itself was more than enough to cover for a whole movie, so it did not make much sense why they needed to add in the storyline of the cure in the movie. The intention was stated, but there was really no need for it. They said that they wanted a political story to be tied to the movie, because that was a thing with the previous instalments. X-Men had the mutant registration act, and X-Men 2 had the fallout of the attack on the president and how that was influencing mutant hysteria. For The Last Stand, they felt that it was cool to have a storyline about the cure attached to the Phoenix Saga, which, again, didn’t occur in the comics until decades later. The comic was just about the Jean Grey…er…the Phoenix.
2. The Phoenix is not an Alternate Personality
Movies often take creative liberties with comic adaptations. Just ask how many diehard fans liked the MCU adaptation of the original Mandarin: Aldrich Killian…or how much they liked the Age of Ultron movie sharing a title with one of Marvel’s best comics in the 2010s despite being so different from it. Let’s not get to how many liberties were taken with the X-Men movies. In fact, let’s talk about it. In the comics, the Phoenix is a force of nature, and one of the most powerful entities in the universe. It has the ability to create life and reshape entire worlds. It also has an unstable psychology. It can become corrupted, and when it does, it evolves into the Dark Phoenix, which does pretty much anything an evil being would do with vast telekinetic and telepathic abilities. The most it ever did was consume a star, killing untold billions of people. It seems to be attracted to the Summers-Grey family for some reason, but mostly the Grey side of the family. Not only does Jean have it, but her alternate future daughter Rachel as well, and it wanted to attach itself to Scott’s adoptive granddaughter Hope Summers (she was adopted by Scott’s son Cable). It did also possess Scott for a while, as well as other members of the X-Men and used them as conduits to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, the Avengers did not like that idea and fought the X-Men about it until the Phoenix became corrupted once more and did some evil things the fans have still not forgiven Scott for. The Last Stand simplified the Phoenix to being just a repressed personality of Jean’s, which manifested itself in order to contain her power, which was too great for her to control on her own. It was a personality driven by desire, rage and joy, which explains the bad things she ended up doing in the movie.
3. Wolverine is not the Main Character
As much as it pains a lot of fans to hear this, Wolverine is not the main character of the Dark Phoenix stories, much less X-Men properties overall. He is the most popular, but he is not the main character, or the head of the property. That title would go to Scott for being the “first X-Man”, Cable for being the prophesized saviour of the future, or simply Charles Xavier for being the main representative of the mutant race, although that role has greatly diminished in recent years. In this story, Wolverine does barely anything remarkable. Most of it is concentrated on Scott, because Jean is on trial for the civilization she destroyed and Scott has to fight to save her from certain doom, along with the X-Men. The movie turns all of that around and kills Scott off in the first half hour of the movie and makes Wolverine the one who does everything in his power to make sure that Jean is safe. It gives everything Scott was supposed to do, to Wolverine.
4. Storm was not the Leader of the X-Men at the Time
This point may come as the other surprising fact in this article. Storm was not the leader of the X-Men during the story in the comics. It was still Scott. What’s even more surprising is that Storm was the leader in the movie. She didn’t really do much of leading in the movie aside from the training session when she told Wolverine how not to get things done, and when she failed to reign Wolverine in and stop him from doing something counterproductive…and that was in a training exercise. In the final battle, which is the only time she could have actually led the team, Wolverine did all the pep talks, gave the instructions and held the line. Storm just stood and watched everything. Wolverine was even the one in the middle of the line the X-Men had drawn between the military and the Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants. This was not the case in the comics. In the comics, Scott was the leader of the X-Men and did proactive leading. He led the team in their missions and even when the climactic battle of the story took place, Scott was the one leading the team. They were defeated in the end, but the team did put up an incredible fight against the unknown and ultimately more powerful enemy.
5. The Climactic Battle Takes Place on the Moon
As said above, the Phoenix is a cosmic entity, and as such, there were obviously aliens involved, which were the ones in the civilization that was destroyed when the Phoenix consumed its sun. Aliens called the Shi’ar came to Earth to prosecute Jean for the crimes she had committed, and the X-Men got in the way. They would not allow Jean to be taken by these aliens. Her fate ended up being decided on the blue area of the moon, where the two factions fought and the X-Men were systematically taken down by these aliens. This was the last major battle to take place before the conclusion of the story. In the movie, in their initiative of keeping things grounded in reality (which they didn’t do a good job at either way) the last battle was fought on Alcatraz Island, which had become privatized. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Magneto, and joined by Jean, were there to kill the young mutant who was the source of the cure for mutation. The X-Men stepped in to fight the Brotherhood and protect the mutant child. Talk about taking liberties.
6. Magneto has no Impact on the Story
Another thing that may come as a surprise to many movie fans in this article is the knowledge that Magneto is not the only enemy that the X-Men have, and neither is he the only major antagonist they have. The X-Men have enemies like Mr Sinister, the Hellfire Club, the sentinels, Graydon Creed, the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants, and so many others. The Phoenix Saga has the Phoenix Force and the Shi’ar Empire as the enemies of the X-Men. Magneto has no say in the story. He is absent during the story. The movies, however, make it seem like there is no X-Men movie without Magneto in it as the bad guy, and have him switch sides in every movie except X-Men and X-Men: The Last Stand. The movie had him as the primary antagonist, even though the story was based on Jean turning evil. She became a supporting character because the storyline involving the cure took up more screentime. It seemed as though Jean’s dark phoenix storyline was just meant to explore Wolverine’s love for her more than it was meant to hold moral implications about how far the team was willing to go to protect their beloved teammate.
7. The Roster
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